Splendor Mangolia
by ClickRed
Summary: Sasuke has always been a one-man emotional rollercoaster waiting for a breakdown. Getting over it is the hard part. He just has to realize that the best advice sometimes given may come from someone who’s been there time and time again. Naru/Sasu light .


Splendor Mangolia

By _ClickRed_

_A/N: Thank you for giving this story a shot. Well this oneshot a shot… ANYWAY, thank you nonetheless. I greatly appreciate it. This is a bit of a Naruto and Sasuke story and could be taken as either a friendship fic or slight Sasuke and Naruto undertone fic. I don't think that I'm ready to anything explicit without making it cheddar-cheesy-cake. I'll get to it eventually, maybe even this week, but for now… this is okay. _

_Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. Sasuke isn't mine.

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Sasuke heard the soft pitter-patter of a Konoha rainstorm. It had a soft quality about it, shearing and undulating as it sashayed in the air and fell to the ground. Its rivulets, he imagined, stared out at him through his broken window and plopped further still to join the shattered glass. He sometimes wondered what it would be like to be the rain, in a constant freefall only to drift off and condense and fall again. Wondered what it would be like to swivel on a lateral metronome. Wondered what it would be like to be a searing series of hydrogen's and oxygen's as they detached themselves from mainland cloud nine.

Drip.

Sasuke winced slightly as the cold breathy air made a beeline to his eyes and gently scraped against them. He felt his cheeks redden and his lips grow pallid. He wondered how long the cold would numb his senses before the he couldn't even breathe, not that he was trying very hard to do so. His heart became stagnant and vociferous all at once, trying to furiously pump blood and heat to the wind kissed limbs. Fight! It screamed at him. Stay alive! It shrieked.

Drip.

Sasuke ignored the petty survival chatter and brought his shaking hand to his face. Hn. He wondered if he really was dying. Perhaps, he thought with some amusement, he'd encounter Itachi in hell if he did. There'd be fighting and yelling and chaos and perhaps some of those dangerous questions that people just didn't ask.

Was the power worth it? Why did you come back just when I was beginning to forget you? Did you feel anything for our parents as their drip-drop-drip blood fell from their open mouths and eyes and heart? Any remorse? Any compassion?

_Can_ you feel?

Drip.

Sasuke felt the soft pulse of the door of his house, where he lied on the floor commiserating over his life. "Come in Naruto." He thought he said. It could have easily been the wind with the way it was blowing. Either way, the blond man entered and Sasuke immediately felt the small tug of energy emanating from him. Once upon a time, he mused, he'd have been envious of that energy and of that power. Now it was only a nuisance that tickled his senses.

"Hey Sas— !" The ninja hollered, dropping whatever he was carrying to the floor and rushing over to the empty man on the floor. "Sasuke." He whimpered, "What have you done to yourself?" He ran his ringers across Sasuke's arms, feeling his own warmth being greedily sucked from his fingertips. Sasuke was freezing. Naruto shifted nervously and stopped. He pulled Sasuke off of the floor gently and into a warm embrace, the raven-haired boy tried to dislodge himself apprehensively. Naruto paid him little mind. "What happened to your window?" He asked, his breath fanning softly against the sickly skin of Sasuke's forehead. Sasuke closed his eyes; he was becoming aggravated with his somewhat friend.

Drip.

"Spontaneous combustion." Sasuke said offhandedly. It was a lie. A few adventurous idiot children snickered as they broke his glass pane and ran off. They used an exploding rock, which Sasuke chancily avoided. He opened his eyes. Sasuke wearily watched the stone after the explosion, thinking there was another explosive attached. No, only a note-

_-We hope you die-_

-it said. Sasuke glanced at it through the corner of his eye, beneath the juncture of Naruto's neck and shoulder. It sat innocently, wiped clean of its deeds, and mocked Sasuke, rogue-ninja-traitor-murderer-monster, from its torpid posture.

Drip.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and pushed his friend away. It was always so loud when the moron came, even if he hadn't said a word. "Teme…" Naruto growled dangerously. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Sasuke felt like laughing. What the fuck was wrong with him? What wasn't _wrong_ with him?

Drip-drip.

The black-eyed man stared in horror as the continuum of droplets fluctuated in his hindsight. "Shit!" He heard Naruto hiss, abrasive and warning, his voice battered in with the rest of the background noise. "Shit Sasuke," He felt the boy's calloused palm brush across his face. "Don't cry." Was he?

He brought his fingers up to his temple and caressed around to feel for that dark trail of water that Naruto accused him of spouting. It was wet. Hn. Well that was new.

"Look," The blond boy began, "why don't I take you over to my place." He said, staring scrupulously at the boy. Sasuke turned, not wanting his rival to see his weakness. No. He wouldn't go. He had to, needed to, stay. "Would you like tha—"

"Get out." Sasuke harped, cutting the boy off from his two-day-three-hour monologue about why Sasuke shouldn't have to be alone in the household, how he'd lose himself in his thoughts, how he'd freeze-boil-dissolve-something terribly away. He wasn't in the mood to be patronized and lease of all by an idiot who didn't even know what chakra was after years in the academy. He scoffed.

"No dammit." His 'somewhat' best friend, 'somewhat' pesky rival, 'somewhat' most terrifying nightmare snapped at him. "Look, everyone else is too afraid of you to tell you this but I'm not." He seethed; Naruto's eyes flickered ready for battle. Sasuke inwardly groaned and looked off to the side, here we go again. This was the never-ending battle of Naruto; piss him off and watch him perform like an angry monkey at a sideshow.

"You _need_ help Sasuke." Sasuke scoffed. Right. _He_ was the one who needed help. This was coming from someone with a demon in his gut.

Drip.

"Are you listening to me teme?" Naruto howled incredulously. "Look at me dammit!" He did. Naruto was shaking furiously. His blackened scars vibrated beneath his skin and the little rage driven spit balls clinging to his lips fizzled into zaggy steam. "You're lying in your goddamn living room in a heap of glass. It's supposed to snow later today, did you know that? " It was a rhetorical question. "Of course not! And you'll probably freeze to death because you still didn't fix the damn heater!" Naruto venomously pointed to the corroding square contraption. It had broken a long time ago. Sasuke didn't want to bother with it now or later or ever.

"Hn." Sasuke regarded it carefully. "Your observational skills are astounding." Sasuke laced the statement with mirth. He smirked. Smirking was a safe gesture. He didn't know what else to do. "It's a wonder your head doesn't explode with all of the stupid you have stuffed in there, or do you think I'm not aware of that?"

Drip.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "You asshole." He stood up and began a heated front and back pacing. "I'm just trying to help." He sighed and ran a hand through his flaxen hair. Sasuke kept his eyes on Naruto because he was distracting. "Tell me what to do Sasuke, because I'm sure as hell not leaving you like this." Sasuke thought he looked pathetic like that, little pathetic weepy caring Naruto, peering out like a tame puppy from his hazardous hair. What was this? All bark and no bite day? What the hell was he thinking when he befriended him? Sasuke grunted and shifted away from the boy before standing up.

"Do what you want." Sasuke told him and began walking away. Naruto narrowed his eyes and curled his fingers into a fist. He didn't let Sasuke go to the hallway entrance before letting his fist fly. Sasuke felt it coming, all of Konoha felt it coming, but didn't even flinch away. He didn't want to clean anything the Dobe shattered if he dodged.

"Was that necessary?" Sasuke's eye twitched. He eyed the intruder once again. Naruto stood in an awkward position; it was something between stepping forward and toward Sasuke or stepping back toward the door. He couldn't make his mind up to stay or leave. Sasuke sighed. This was Naruto being ridiculous again. "I won't attack you." He felt foolish that he should even reassure the boy of this, but even more so guilty that he could inspire such feelings in him.

"I know that asshole." Naruto grunted and walked over to him. "'sides, you couldn't even scratch my forehead protector if you tried." He chuckled a bit, but still eyed Sasuke wearily. The little jab that Sasuke remembered giving his friend did not go over his head. He simply cocked an eyebrow and waited patiently for his friend's reaction. Naruto blinked. Nothing; he was waiting for Sasuke.

Sasuke broke eye contact and glanced at the cracked windowpane, glared at it, and sighed. "They hate me." He whispered and stilled; Sasuke continued while Naruto focused in on his shallow breath, "They don't fear me. They hate me." He looked at Naruto; the shadows of his house played against the skin under the boy's hair, weaving and clashing and bleeding away. It was all red in his mind. "How am I supposed to contend with that?"

Drip.

Sasuke flinched and Naruto noticed. He nodded compassionately at Sasuke. "You don't. You broke their hearts. When…" Naruto shifted uncomfortably on his heels and centered himself once more. "When you left," Naruto closed his eyes and tried to choke the words out. Sasuke needed to understand. "When you left, you broke the backbone of Konoha. You were their prize student, the last member of a clan that founded our village, and you threw away everything that they offered you. You spat in their faces. No one forgives something like that instantaneously." Or ever, seemed to cling to the boy's lips. Or ever, or ever, or ever...

"I know." Sasuke said, "I didn't expect anything different. I…" He expected to be executed. He expected to die before he saw the village again. He expected many things that never happened. "I don't know what I expected." He sighed and walked over to Naruto and stopped. He couldn't get any closer. His shadow would block all of the light that stuck to Naruto, because that's how it was. Light clung to Naruto, even in the rain. Sasuke didn't deserve the light. He was destined to grow and feed and live darkness until it contorted his already mangled up soul. "I don't know what to expect."

Drip.

Naruto raised his head and watched Sasuke's frantic expression. He was nervous. This was a rare event. Naruto smiled. He stepped over that blinding threshold of light, over to Sasuke and hugged him. "Expect that I'll be there at least." He whispered into Sasuke's mesh of ear and black hair. "That's a promise." Sasuke lifted his arms around the boy and returned the embrace. It was intimate and warm and comforting. It was a lot of things. He wanted to thank Naruto. He didn't, but he believed him. Sasuke believed Naruto's words because he never broke his promises. It was his ninja way.

Drip-drop. Drip.

"So waddaya say about going over to my place, 'cause this place is starting to creep me out." Naruto laughed and Sasuke snorted. He pushed Naruto away. "Well, it is." Naruto bleakly complained and Sasuke silently agreed. The place was rather dark and dreary. There were monsters beneath the floorboards and some were in the floorboards. When he was alone, they would taunt him. Maybe getting out would be a good idea, Sasuke thought. He nodded softly and followed Naruto out of the depressing house. The noise in his head all but stopped.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

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AN: Well, that's the end of that one. I think it's really interesting, and I have to say that I'm happy with it. I tried to do something with imagery and symbolism. Hopefully it worked. If not, well then I fail at writing and some such. Anyway, review if you feel so inclined to. I am after all trying to get better at this and would truly appreciate the help. I hope that wasn't too depressing. If it was... then... that just sucks. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. 


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